Vocabulary List 4 - More roots

1 average 6 able to be broken down by living things 8 payment 9 to credit 10 relating to 13 hindrance 14 easily noticed 17 social Down 2 summarize 2 goodwill towards men 4 denial 5 fear

For example, in this chapter, you will be introduced to the root phobe, which means fear You can then

guess that any word that contains this root has to do with the fear of something For instance, claus-trophobia means an abnormal fear of small spaces.

Vocabulary List 4: More Roots

C H A P T E R S U M M A R Y

Just as many people in our culture have their roots in other countries, roots of English words, too, come from other languages The words of the English language have been borrowed from other languages over the course of history The history of a word is called its etymology Many

of the roots in Chapter 6 come from Greek and Latin languages We have included 20 more words with important roots in this chapter because the more roots and origins you are familiar with, the more you will be able to recognize related words.

7

1 average

6 able to be broken down by living things

8 payment

9 to credit

10 relating to

13 hindrance

14 easily noticed

17 social

Down

2 summarize

2 goodwill towards men

4 denial

5 fear of open or public spaces

6 bighearted, good

7 to fit in

11 obvious

12 deduction

13 clear cut

14 belief

15 preceding

16 suave

Choose the word from the Vocabulary List that best fits into the crossword puzzle You can check your answers

at the end of the chapter following the answers to the questions

4

2 6

5

7 8

9

12 11

10

14

17

15 16 13

Vocabulary List 4: More Roots

agoraphobic

assimilate

attribute

benevolent

biodegradable

conspicious

contradiction

credence

evident

gregarious

impediment

incisive

inference

mediocre

philanthropy

precedent

recapitulate

remittance

tangential

urbane

goraphobic ( a·ə·rə·fo¯·bik)

root: phobe means fear

(adj.)

fear of open or public spaces

My neighbor is , so I do his grocery

shopping for him

root: simul means copy

(verb)

to fit in

It is very difficult to to another culture as

an adult

root: trib means to give

(noun)

a special quality

(verb) (at·trib·u¯t)

to credit

I much of my success to my education

root: ben means good

(adj.)

kind, having goodwill

The counselor always seemed to

understand her student’s problems

root: bio means life

(adj.)

able to be broken down by living things

Ella is a staunch environmentalist, so she buys only

products

root: spic, spec mean see

(adj.)

highly visible

Nikolai’s Halloween costume made it

hard not to notice him

root: contra means against, dict means say

(noun)

the act or state of disagreeing

My teacher made a direct to her earlier instructions by allowing us to turn in a handwritten report

root: cred means believe

(noun)

belief, believability Marty gave to the gossip because it came from a reliable source

root: vid means see

(adj.)

obvious The effects of the drought will be to anyone who comes to visit the area

root: greg means crowd

(adj.)

sociable People want to be around Eva because of her

nature

root: ped, pod means foot, ped means child

(noun)

a barrier or hindrance

I had to work with a therapist to overcome my speech

incisive ( in·s¯·siv) root: cis, cid mean to cut

(adj.)

penetrating, clear cut Journalistic writing should be and factual

inference ( in·fər·ens)

root: fer means bear or carry

(noun)

guess or surmise

Using his technical expertise, he was able to make

a(n) about his findings

root: med means middle

(adj.)

of medium quality, neither good nor bad, average

The movie was at best, but I watched the

whole thing anyway

root: phil means love

(noun)

giving generously to worthy causes

The Stark family is very wealthy and known for its

; last year, they donated one million dollars to help build a new community arts

center

root: ced means go

(noun)

a prior ruling or experience

There is no for this case, so it will be

difficult to win in court

root: cap means head

(verb)

to review in detail

Before the final exam, the professor always likes to

the entire semester for the students

root: mit, mis means to send

(noun)

payment, transmittal of money

I forgot to enclose my , so I had to pay a

late fee the following month

root: tang, tac, tig mean touch

(adj.)

touching slightly, relating to When giving a speech, Jeanine makes so many

remarks that it is hard to grasp her message

root: urb means city

(adj.)

polished, sophisticated Her manner is a result of many years in the public eye

Words in Context

The following exercise will help you figure out the meaning of some words from Vocabulary List 4 by reading context clues After you have read and under-stood the paragraph, explain the context clues that helped you with the meaning of the vocabulary word Refer to the answer section at the end of this chapter for

an explanation of the clues

Scientists at New York Aquarium in Brooklyn have discovered that bottle-nosed dolphins may have self-awareness They

attribute this belief to the result of

experi-ments by Dr Diane Reiss at the Osborn Lab

of Marine Science She and her team gave

further credence to this notion by marking dolphins’ noses with an x and an o

Some-times the mark was done with just water, sometimes with colored waterproof dye

Each time a dolphin was marked, it would check itself in the mirror If it had a

conspicuous colored mark, it would swim to

the side of the pool and try to rub it off As a result of these experiments, scientists made

an inference that because these dolphins

recognized their image in a mirror, they were self-aware Before these experiments,

– V O C A B U L A R Y L I S T 4 : M O R E R O O T S –

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gorillas had set the precedent of being the

only mammals other than humans who

could recognize their images

Sentence Completion

Insert the correct word from Vocabulary List 4 into

the following sentences

1 Reaching heights of 310 feet, the Millennium

Force roller coaster is the most

ride at the Cedar Point Amusement Park

2 In only one generation, the immigrant family

surroundings

3 Recent ocean-floor discoveries have made it

that the huge part of our planet hidden underwater still holds

sur-prises that are waiting to be uncovered

4 Some pest control companies guarantee that

leave any traces in either air or soil

Out of Africa rehabilitation and learning center

for abandoned or injured wild cats

the shy young woman enrolled in a public

speak-ing course

advanc-ing in society is a lack of education

8 Despite recent attacks, it is no

that humans are much more dangerous to sharks than sharks are to

humans

9 In order for the brain to function at an optimum,

needs proper nutrition, sleep, oxygen, caring, and laughter

10 Lance Armstrong’s recovery from cancer and

comeback as world-champion cyclist gives

to his positive attitude and perseverance

11 As a result of the administration’s tax rebate

pol-icy, most U.S taxpayers received a

of $300–$600

12 The multimillion dollar cultural arts center was

wealthy patrons

predic-tions about the damage from Europe’s most active volcano, Mount Etna in Sicily

14 In her warm and funny short stories, Eudora

Welty preferred to talk about simple, humble

high-society people

15 Her local association was

to the worldwide environmental organization

publisher’s e-mail that his book was approved for publishing

17 The elderly woman became increasingly

and refused to leave her apartment

18 He used the first chapter of his novel to

the historical back-ground of the special air force unit in WWII

19 Research has shown that as adults, even twins

who are separated at birth have similar

20 Before Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment,

federally appointed female Supreme Court Justice

Synonyms

The following exercise lists vocabulary words from this

chapter Each word is followed by five answer choices

Four of them are synonyms of the vocabulary word in

bold Your task is to choose the one that is NOT a

synonym

21 benevolent

a compassionate

b caring

c malevolent

d kind

e generous

22 recapitulate

a repeat

b summarize

c reiterate

d decimate

e review

23 urbane

a sophisticated

b advanced

c complicated

d polished

e puerile

24 conspicuous

a cryptic

b evident

c visible

d prominent

e noticeable

25 incisive

a keen

b insightful

c unclear

d intuitive

e penetrating

26 gregarious

a sociable

b companionable

c outgoing

d extroverted

e shy

27 assimilate

a incorporate

b reject

c absorb

d digest

e understand

28 impediment

a hindrance

b obstacle

c obstruction

d aid

e barrier

– V O C A B U L A R Y L I S T 4 : M O R E R O O T S –

8 0

29 inference

a deduction

b assumption

c obsolescence

d suggestion

e supposition

30 credence

a authority

b unbelievable

c credibility

d belief

e acceptance

Antonyms

Choose the word from Vocabulary List 4 that means the opposite, or most nearly the opposite, of the following groups of words

31 aid, assistance, support, backing

32 bill, cost, charge

33 central, vital, innermost, crucial

34 nastiness, greed, selfishness, gluttony

35 unsophisticated, simple, crude, unrefined

36 disbelief, incredulity, doubt, mistrust

37 agreement, consensus, accord, harmony

38 hidden, obscure, cryptic, concealed

39 outstanding, exceptional, superior, first-rate

40 unclear, murky, indistinct, doubtful

Choosing the Right Word

Circle the word in bold that best completes the

sentence

41 Because she was fearful of wide-open spaces,

she was diagnosed as being (agoraphobic,

gregarious).

42 During the scavenger hunt, the easily seen clue

was left under a (conspicuous, incisive) rock.

43 The quickly dissolving fertilizer was

(mediocre, biodegradable).

44 (Benevolent, urbane) Peace Corps volunteers

selflessly devote their time to help others in

need

45 In order to receive high marks, Olympic ice

skaters’ performances cannot be (conspicuous,

mediocre).

46 His blindness did not stop him from becoming

a Grammy winner, nor was it an (impediment,

precedent) to him becoming a singing

sensation

47 In the Preamble of the Constitution, it clearly

states, “We hold these truths to be self

(evident, benevolent) that all men are created

equal.”

48 To sum up the important events, the producer

had the narrator (attribute, recapitulate)

49 It’s always a good idea to send your (inference,

remittance) to the phone company

immediately after you receive your bill

50 Because of their clarity and logic, no one

questioned the (incisive, mediocre) orders of

the captain

Practice Activities

The following is a list of words that contain the same roots as the words in this chapter See if you can deter-mine the word meanings Check your definitions with the dictionary definitions

xenophobia, facsimile, contribution, bene-ficiary, bionic, introspection, dictate, cred-ulous, video, egregious, pedestrian, precise, interfere, media, bibliophile, inter-cede, commission, contiguous, suburban

Select any five words from the list and create your own sentences

–– V O C A B U L A R Y L I S T 4 : M O R E R O O T S ––

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Words in Context

After reading the paragraph, we learn that scientists

have made a discovery about bottle-nosed dolphins

Because of their experiments using mirrors, they believe

that the dolphins can recognize themselves in a

reflec-tion Therefore, they credit these experiments with

prov-ing this to be true We can deduce that attribute means

giving credit to the results that support this finding

The next word we see is credence Further experiments

of placing marks on the noses of these dolphins cause

them to seek out their reflection to check their noses for

marks that they try to wipe off We can presume that

cre-dence means it makes these findings more believable.

Because the dolphins tried to rub off conspicuous colored

marks on their noses, we can imply that conspicuous

marks were highly visible Because of the results of these

experiments, the scientists inferred that dolphins could

recognize their own images We can tell that the

infer-ence was their conclusion The last vocabulary word we

see is precedent Since there have been no other examples

of mammals being aware of their own image, other

than gorillas setting a precedent, we can infer that the

dis-covery of gorillas’ self-awareness came before the

dol-phin discovery

Sentence Completion

1 conspicuous If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

2.assimilate If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

3.evident If you got this question wrong, refer back

to the word’s definition

4.biodegradable If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

5.benevolent If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

6.gregarious If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

7.impediment If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

8.contradiction If you got this question wrong,

refer back to the word’s definition

9.mediocre If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

10. credence If you got this question wrong, refer back

to the word’s definition

11. remittance If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

12. philanthropy If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

13. incisive If you got this question wrong, refer back

to the word’s definition

14. urbane If you got this question wrong, refer back

to the word’s definition

15. tangential If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

16. inferred If you got this question wrong, refer back

to the word’s definition

17. agoraphobic If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

18. recapitulate If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

19. attributes If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

20. precedent If you got this question wrong, refer

back to the word’s definition

Synonyms

21 c malevolent Benevolent means giving and

kind, so malevolent would not be a synonym

of the word since it means evil

decimate would not be a synonym of the word since it means destroy

would not be a synonym of the word because

it means childish

 A n s w e r s

24. a cryptic Conspicuous means obvious, so

cryptic would not be a synonym of the word

because it means hidden

25. c unclear Incisive means perceptive, so unclear

would not be the synonym of the word

because it means wishy-washy

would not be a synonym of the word

27. b reject Assimilate means to take in, so reject

would not be a synonym of the word because

it means to discard or throw out

would not be a synonym of the word because

it means to help

so obsolescence would not be a synonym of

the word because it means outdated

30. b unbelievable Credence means belief or trust,

so unbelievable would not be a synonym

since it means the opposite of the rest of the

words in the list

Antonyms

31. impediment Impediment means hindrance, the

opposite meaning of the words in the group

32. remittance Remittance means payment, opposite

of the meaning of the words in the group

33. tangential Tangential means secondary or

unim-portant, the opposite of the meaning of the words

in the group

34. philanthropy Philanthropy means generosity, the

opposite of the meaning of the words in the group

35. urbane Urbane means sophisticated and cultured,

the opposite of the meaning of the words in the

group

36. credence Credence means belief, the opposite of

the meaning of the words in the group

37. contradiction Contradiction means disagreement,

the opposite of the words in the group

38. conspicuous Conspicuous means noticeable, the

opposite of the words in the groups

39. mediocre Mediocre means commonplace, the

opposite of the words in the group

40. evident Evident means obvious, the opposite of

the meaning of the words in the group

Choosing the Right Word

41. agoraphobic Context clue is that she was fearful of

wide-open spaces

42. conspicuous Context clue is the easily seen clue.

43. biodegradable Context clue is quickly dissolving

fertilizer

44. benevolent Context clue is volunteers selflessly

devote their time

45. mediocre Context clue is that Olympic skaters cannot receive high marks.

46. impediment Context clue is the man’s blindness

did not stop him from becoming a Grammy winner

47. evident Context clue is the Constitution clearly states.

48. recapitulate Context clue is that the important

events were summarized

49. remittance Context clue is that the customers

found the remittance to be too costly

50. incisive Context clue is that the captain’s orders

had clarity and logic

– V O C A B U L A R Y L I S T 4 : M O R E R O O T S –

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